Holy Spirit to forfeit football win vs. Oakcrest due to ineligible player

Holy Spirit’s Nigel Jones (23) breaks away on a first-half
touchdown run against Oakcrest on Friday. Jones carried 17 times
for 117 yards and three touchdowns.

The Holy Spirit High School football team won't finish 12-0 this
season.

The Spartans will forfeit their season-opening 41-16 win over
Oakcrest last Friday for using an academically ineligible
player.

Spirit, No. 1 in The Press Elite 11, reported the violation to
the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association and the
Cape-Atlantic League on Wednesday, according to Spirit athletic
director Keith Gorman.

Both the CAL and the NJSIAA are expected to quickly review the
matter and make the forfeit official.

Holy Spirit will be 0-1 and Oakcrest 1-0.

"Thank God we caught it after week one and not after week five,"
Gorman said. "The entire school, the administration is not happy
about this."

Spirit won the state Non-Public III title and finished 12-0 last
season. The Spartans returned several standouts and one of the
biggest topics of the preseason was whether they were more talented
this year than last.

"We're not going to get into the details about where the ball
was dropped," Gorman said, "but we've taken action to make sure
this doesn't happen again."

Gorman declined to name the ineligible player. He did say he was
an offensive starter, who did not have enough academic credits to
be eligible.

The player transferred to Holy Spirit this summer and did not
play football at his previous school.

"I'm heartbroken for this kid and his family," Gorman said.
"He's a good kid."

Gorman said he had an uneasy feeling about the player's
eligibility after the Oakcrest game, so the school's administration
rechecked the player's academic history.

"It was one of those (athletic director) moments," Gorman said.
"I just said we need to check this kid again. I don't know where it
came from. Nobody said anything to me about it. We did and thank
God we did now instead of week six, and then we're out of the
playoffs all together."